Boycotts and Barflies (23 page)

“So, let’s get this out of the way now. Gift ideas for Meg and Bianca?”

She thought about it for a second and then an idea popped into her head.

“For Bianca, have Jack try and get her tickets to the gallery opening for Marcus  Frank. She used one of his paintings in the Conklin Building renovation last  month and fell in love with his work. The opening is in Seattle, mid -January I  think. It would score Jack some major points if he could swing that.” Grace  laughed and then began racking her brain about Meg. “For Meg, tell Ryan to  drive her down to San Francisco some weekend so she can go to the boutiques  and hunt for antiques. She’ll be thrilled to explore all those little shops. Good  enough? Is our meeting adjourned?” Grace laughed.

“Works for me.” Michael laughed as they pulled in front of his place. He opened  the door and led Grace up the front steps. Inside, his whole apartment smelled  delicious. The aroma of bacon, sausage, and maple syrup wafted through the  air. Grace stood in the kitchen in shock.

“What time did you wake up to start all of this?” she asked in amazement.

He shrugged and smiled. “I never really went to bed. I had kind of a difficult

time getting to sleep last night, so I just stayed up and started a few things

before we came to pick you up.”

“You’re unbelievable.” She walked into the kitchen and picked up a spatula in

an effort to help.

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“No, no, no.  You are my guest. Humor me.” He pulled the spatula out of her  hand. “Just tell me, how do you like your eggs ?”

“Scrambled, with cheese if you have some.” All of the talk about breakfast was  making her hungry.

“That I can do. Now, follow me.” He took her hand and led her out of the  kitchen and through the family room and down a hall, which she assumed led  to his  bedroom. Grace stopped walking as they approached the door and gave  him a suspicious look. He just laughed and gave her hand a tug, pulling Grace  into his room.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to serve you breakfast in bed.” He held out his  arm toward the inviting king sized bed that was in front of them. The navy blue  comforter was neatly folded back, revealing the blue and white striped sheets

beneath. A pile of fluffy pillows leaned against the headboard and a remote  control to the stereo was sitting on the nightstand.

“Meg’s going to kill you when she hears about this.” Grace laughed as she  kicked off her shoes and climbed into his bed. He tucked the comforter snugly  around her waist and kissed her lips.

“I can handle Meg, don’t you worry,” he teased. H e reached across her and laid  the remote control in her lap. “I have a bunch of CDs loaded in there, see if you  can find something you like. My only rule is that you don’t leave this bed. Understand?” he said as his blue eyes sparkled in the dim lights. Grace nodded,  and he dashed out the door to get everything ready.

Grace clicked on the stereo and quickly flipped through the songs. She found he  had an eclectic taste in music, which was cool. She easily found something to  listen to and as the music played, Grace snuggled down deeper under the  covers, pulling them up to her chin. Lying there, still not believing he had  managed to pull this whole thing off, Grace realized just how much the pillows  and blankets all smelled like him. She buried her nose into one of the pillows  and breathed deeply, feeling completely at home and relaxed.

A few minutes later, Michael came back with a tray full of food. He had fruit,  bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs for her and eggs over easy for himself,  pancakes, and toast. The  tray was finished off by two glassed of orange juice. “Hungry?” he asked as he walked over to the bed.

“Actual y yes, considering it’s only 5:15 in the morning, I am.” Grace quickly sat  up against the headboard so he could set the tray across her lap. He slid into  bed next to her looking absolutely victorious. “What are you smiling about?”  she asked.

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“Oh nothing, I’ve just been dying to get you into bed for weeks and I finally did  it.” Grace gave his shoulder a small, teasing shove.

“And neither of us lost our bets. Seriously, though, this is amazing,” Grace said  softly. The amount of effort he went through to make this happen was  staggering. “Thank you,” she said as she ran her hand down the side of his face. “My pleasure,” he whispered before he gently kissed her.

Breakfast was delicious, but what made it more wonderful was being so at ease  with Michael. They finished breakfast in record time and the only time he left  the bed for the remainder of the morning was to take the dishes into the  kitchen. He quickly climbed back under the covers with Grace where they  laughed and talked for hours. She had her arm draped across his chest and laid

her head on his shoulder as he ran his hand up and down her back. They  stayed like that, lost in a comfortable silence, for a long  while.

“What classes are you going to be teaching next semester?” he asked as he  played with a lock of her hair.

“One is called Major American Writers and the other is Literature of the Early  1900’s,” Grace said excitedly. “I even get to pick two of the bo oks for the  assigned readings.”

“Choose wisely. You don’t want the students mad at you from the get go,” Michael teased, but she had to laugh because she’d been worrying about the  same thing for a week.

“So how is the location search going for the bar?” Grace asked as she ran her  fingers across his chest.

“Not bad. There are a few places we like. One is on High Street and it would be  perfect, but I have a feeling it will be well out of our price range. We have a  meeting with a developer next week. If they want too much, we’ll just keep  looking,” he said encouragingly.

“Did you guys come up with a name for it yet?”

“No, not yet. I’m open to suggestions, so if you think of something, let me  know.” He lifted his head to check the clock.

“Don’t say it,” Grace grumbled as she nuzzled tightly against his chest.

“Sorry, sweetheart, but we do have to get going in ten minutes. Your ‘mother’ gave you a curfew.” He laughed as he buried his lips into her hair, kissing her  head, forehead and both cheeks, before settling down onto Grace’s lips. “Stupid Meg,” she murmured as he kissed her. “Stupid bet.”

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In the silence of his room, wrapped in his arms, Grace thought about everything that had happened these last few weeks. How amazing Michael was, and how alive he made her feel when she was with him. Everything about him made her smile and she couldn’t imagine her life without him anymore. His phone calls woke her up every morning and helped her sleep every night. She could barely remember  what life had been like before him and didn’t even want to try. All Grace knew was that she wanted to be with him, always. She looked up at his face, taking in his perfect features, when his eyes met hers.

I think love you, Michael, Grace whispered in her  head. I’m just too chicken to say it.

She realized she was grinning like a mad woman and looked away before he could notice. Her heart sprung to life and she was filled with joy, finally

knowing how she felt about him. Even though she wasn’t ready to say it out  loud, she knew with every fiber of her being that she loved Michael.

It was Michael’s deep voice that pulled her out of her stupor. “Come on, my  love. Time to get you home.”

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Chapter 14

H er head was still spinning as she walked into the apartment. As soon as she’d shut the door, Grace leaned back against the wood, slid down all the way to the floor, and sighed loudly. I love Michael. Oh my God, I love Michael! The words kept rolling through her head as her hands trembled in her lap. It took a

seco nd for her to notice that Meg and Bianca were standing over her calling  her name.

“Earth to Grace! What’s wrong with you?” Meg’s voice suddenly became  worried when she noticed Grace was shaking.

“Did he hurt you?” Bianca roared, ready to hunt Michael down  and beat him to  a bloody pulp. Grace looked from her enraged face to Meg’s and shook her  head no. With each movement of her head, she felt a smile growing bigger and  bigger on her face.

“I love him.” It felt so strange to say the words out loud, but as Grace heard  them coming from her mouth, she knew without a doubt that they were true. Her voice grew stronger the second time she said it. “I love him.”

After that, all she could see was a flurry of arms and squeals coming at her,  wrapping around her body as  Meg and Bianca threw themselves onto the floor  with her.

“Grace, tell us everything,” Meg begged.

“Can we get off the floor first?” Grace laughed, climbing to her feet and holding

out a hand to each of them as she helped them off the floor. Then Grace ran and

threw herself onto the couch.

Meg stood in front of her with her hands on her hips, grinning. “Spill it!”

Bianca sat down next to her and folded her arms too, waiting for Grace to say something.

“Well, what do you want to know?” she asked coyly.

“Where did you go for breakfast? What did you talk about? And, oh, I don’t know … you said you love him? Explain,” Meg finally burst.

“He took me to his place for breakfast.” Grace glanced up nervously at Meg who was turning purple.

“He took you where?” she hissed.

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“His place, for breakfast … in bed.” Grace mumbled the last  part as quietly as  she could, but when Bianca whistled, she knew it was going to be bad.

“Are you saying that you had breakfast in bed with him? That is so against the  rules. Who has a breakfast meeting in bed?” Meg kept screaming “in bed”

at the top of her lungs. Bianca snickered quietly next to Grace as she tried to do  some damage control.

“Meg, it was nothing. You could have been sitting in the chair at his desk  watching. Nothing happened except we ate and talked and I guess we snuggled  a bit, but that isn’t against the rules.” Grace pled her case as best she could. When she saw Meg’s jaw set, she decided to just move on, hoping that hearing  the details would distract her.

Meg stood in silence, mul ing the information over. “OK, that was romantic.

He’s good, I’ll give him that. And technically, you stayed within the rules,” she  conceded as she sat down on the other side of Grace. She knew the big question  was coming, she just didn’t know which one of them would ask it.

“So, you love him?” Bianca asked, smirking.

Grace felt her face get hot as she nodded her head. “I do. I love him … so much.  It sounds lame, I know, but it was just right, being there with him, in his arms.  Nothing else mattered.”

“Did you tell him?” Meg asked on the edge of her seat.

“No, not yet. I didn’t want to scare him away, you know? It was a perfect  morning, and I didn’t want to mess that up by sounding like some deranged  stalker,” Grace laughed.

“I told Jack,” Bianca whispered.

Now Bianca was the one pelted with flying arms and squeals in her ears.

“Tell us! Tell us!” Grace shouted as she clapped her hands. “Where did he take  you this morning?”

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“He took me to the Ritz Carlton for breakfast. It was spectacular. We had a  quiet table in the corner overl ooking the river. The food was to die for. It was  their champagne brunch and there were lobster tails and caviar, oysters,  Belgian waffles made as you watched, fresh fruits, crepes, prime rib, omelets,  and you could even get the lobster tails in the omelets.” Jack obviously was  learning her tastes. “And Jack was wonderful. He was still Jack, and silly, but he  was also sweet and thoughtful. He bought me flowers and held my chair out for  me as I sat down and he held my hand through the entire meal.” She sighed at  the memory of her morning with Jack.

“So when did you tell him?” Grace asked.

“Well, we were done eating and he was staring at me with the cutest grin on his  face. So I asked him what he was thinking, and he just blurted out, ‘I was  thinking that I love you.’” Her face turned red.

“He said it first?” Meg asked, in complete shock. Jack, the smooth operator, was  the last one she would have pegged as a romantic.

“Yes. So, I leaned over and kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, ‘I love you  too, Jack.’ Lucky for us, we were in public or I’d have been all over him and out  of the bet.” She laughed as she toyed with the corner of a throw pillow.

“Bianca, that’s so exciting! I’m happy for you two. You’re so brave.” Grace  admired her so much for the way she just followed her heart and her feelings. She wished she could be more like Bianca at times, and this was one of them. “Well, does anyone want to hear about my morning?” Meg asked, slightly hurt  they weren’t begging for her details.

“Yes, of course. Tell us everything,” Grace insisted, as she and Bianca turned  and gave her their complete attention.

“Well, after we got ready, Ryan put me in the car and briefly went  back to his  place to pack up a picnic basket and grab a few blankets because it was so cold  this morning. When we got the car packed, we headed down to Washington  Park. He pulled the picnic basket and huge blankets out of the back seat and we  found a lovely place to bundle up watch the sun rise.”

“Didn’t you freeze? It wasn’t exactly warm this morning,” Bianca asked,  astounded that Meg would risk freezing to death before sunrise for any man. “Actually, I was quite warm in Ryan’s arms, under the blankets.” M eg giggled.  “Then, after the spectacular sunrise, it warmed up and he spread out a lovely  breakfast and a big thermos of hot chocolate for us to share. He even fed me  strawberries.” She swooned as she crashed into Grace’s shoulder.

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“He’s just the most fantastic and interesting person. He wrote a poem which he

shared after breakfast that just swept me off my feet,” she gushed, her entire

body conveying her excitement.

“A poem? Was it a love poem?” Bianca raised an interested eyebrow at Meg,

who was twirling a piece of her blond hair in her fingers.

“Sure, he loves me,” she beamed.

“And when did this happen? You’ve been holding out on us!” Grace raised her

voice in surprise.

She sighed. “He told me a while ago.”

“Days or a week?” Bianca pressed.

“Days.”

“And you said?” Grace prompted.

“I told him I loved him too, of course. I already told him I was the woman of his  dreams the second time I saw him. I was in love with him then; I just had to  wait for him to figure it out,” Meg said with a wink. Grace noticed that she was  downright radiant as she talked about loving Ryan.

Nelly’s song started playing so Grace hopped off the couch to pull the phone  out of her pocket. Meg and Bianca laughed at her eagerness.

“She must be in love,” Bianca muttered.

Grace glared at her over her shoulder then cupped her hand over her mouth to  signal Bianca to be silent while she was on the phone with Michael.

“Hello.”

“Hey. I just wanted to make sure Meg hadn’t ripped you limb from limb for  spending the morning in bed with me,” he teased. Grace felt her cheeks turn  red as her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice.

“No, I’m still alive, barely. I have a feeling she’ll be watching you like a hawk for  a while though, so you better behave.” Grace laughed as Meg nodded her head  in silent agreement from the couch.

“Put Meg on,” he said.

Grace held the phone out to her, giggling as Meg winked and huffed into the  phone. “Don’t you ‘hello, Meg’ me, mister! Your sweet talking may work on  Grace, but I’m a different story. You better get explaining or Grace is out of our  bet,” she pretended to fume. Bianca gave Grace a small poke which made her  laugh more.

“No, no, no! You explain this: who has a breakfast meeting in bed?” Meg  continued her interrogation brill iantly.

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“What do you mean, you were done with business by then? What?” She pulled

the phone away from her ear. “Grace, when did you discuss Christmas

presents?”

“In the car on the way to his house,” she said truthfully.

“That still doesn’t make breakfast in bed within the rules, Michael,” she scolded

into the phone.

She rolled her eyes as he explained himself. “Yes, I have … no, I guess not.

I’m watching you, though. I have my eyes all over you. One false move and … I

didn’t mean like that! … You’re incorrigible. Here’s Grace.” Meg smiled and

tossed the phone back over to Grace. She was pleased with how her  intimidation of Michael went, flexing her muscles in a show of victory.

“Hello? Are you still there?” Grace asked, laughing.

“Yes, she doesn’t scare me. Hey, I had another question I forgot to ask.

When are you leaving to go to your mom’s for Christmas?” Shit, Susan. I had to  go home.

“Saturday. Bianca’s coming with me and Meg’s flying home to Boston.

Why?”

“Well, I wanted to give you your Christmas present before I go. Actually we all  do. Can we stop over tomorrow night and do a mini Christmas?” he asked  hopefully.

Grace answered immediately. “Yes!” Meg and Bianca looked at her in confusion  as she shouted into the phone  with a bit too much excitement.

“Perfect! I’ll let you go. You probably need a nap,” he said sweetly.

“Goodbye, Michael.”

“Goodbye, my love,” he said softly into the phone before he hung up.

Grace held the phone, frozen in place. My love? He said that before, at

his place. The realization finally hit her .

Bianca and Meg watched her clutch the phone to her chest for a second as she  tried to process what he said. They became concerned when she didn’t say  anything for so long.

“Grace, what’s wrong? Is Michael all right?” Meg asked, shaking her friend’s  shoulder slightly.

“Huh?” she asked, not having heard the question.

“What did he say?” Bianca prodded.

“My love …” Grace said softly.

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“What?” they asked together, utterly lost with where this conversation was

going.

“My love. H - he said ‘goodbye … my love.’ That’s what he called me. He said it

this morning too. He’s never said that before.” Grace stood there stunned,

trying to put the pieces together in her head.

“He loves you,” Bianca squealed with a huge smile on her face. Grace looked at

her in disbelief.

Slowing the words down, Bianca tried again to get through to her friend.

“He. Loves. You,” she said clearly, enunciating every word. “Michael loves you.

You don’t call someone ‘my love’ if you aren’t in love with them.” Meg was forcefully nodding her head in agreement, too.

“No, he can’t … It was just an expression,” Grace murm ured as she sat back down onto the couch.

“Why can’t he? You love him. Why can’t he love you? And don’t you dare say  you aren’t worth his love or I’ll give you a black eye,” Meg shouted at her,  holding her tiny fist in front of her chest.

“Grace, she’s right. He loves you.” Bianca held her shoulders as Grace shook her  head no. She felt Bianca’s hand grab her chin and lift it, forcing Grace’s eyes to  meet hers. “Don’t question it; just accept it.” She wiped the single tear that fell  down Grace’s cheek.

“He l oves me?” Grace barely whispered. In that moment, she thought her heart  would burst apart. There was a chance that Michael may actually feel the same  way about her? For the first time in her life, Grace was in love, and if Bianca

and Meg’s guesses were right, he was in love with her, too.

y

Friday morning, the girls got an early start to the mall in search of the perfect  Christmas gifts for the men in their lives. It took them hours and multiple  returns before they each felt they had an acceptable gift and  one that would  convey the proper emotion with it. When they got home just after one o’clock,  Grace turned on the television to check the weather. A huge storm was getting  ready to slam into the east coast and Meg was getting worried about making it  home for Christmas.

“You may want to call the airlines again and see if you can get out of here  tonight,” Grace told her as she watched the snowfall predictions for Saturday. 181

Meg spent the next hour on the phone with her parents and the airlines trying to change her flight, with no luck. She came into Grace’s room and lay across the bed.

“There’s no way I’m getting to Boston. Stupid snow,” she said sadly as she crawled under the covers with Grace.

“Come to Spokane. Maybe my mom  will try and set you up with the son of one of her garden club friends. It’ll be fun!” Grace teased. “Seriously, come with us.  It won’t be the same without you.”

“Fine, but I’m not kissing anyone just because I’m standing under mistletoe.

I don’t care whos e son it is; they’d better keep their lips to themselves. You tell her that.” Meg smiled as she hugged Grace. She hopped off the bed and went to

repack for Spokane while Grace dragged herself out of bed to start the most  hateful job of getting her own suitcase ready to go.

At 4:30, Bianca’s phone started ringing. Grace could hear Jack’s ring tone  blaring in the family room. Bianca appeared at her door and gave it a little tap  as Grace was putting the bow on Michael’s Christmas present.

“What’s up?”

Bianca’s face was sad and she was still holding her cell phone. “That was Jack.  They aren’t going to be able to come tonight. They had to leave all of a

sudden—something about the pipes at Michael’s mom’s house bursting, and  they needed to go save the furniture and there’s shitty cell phone service  where she lives. They all went. I guess Ryan’s flight to Chicago got canceled by  the storm too,” she groused.

“Well, shit.” Grace didn’t even try to hide her disappointment when she  realized it would be almost a week until she saw Michael again. “Merry frickin’ Christmas to us,” Grace growled as she raised the glass of wine she had been  drinking to Bianca, then rolled her eyes. Bianca shrugged her shoulders and  sulked out of the room.

y

Grace’s alarm blared at eight a.m.  and she was in no mood to listen to it. Michael didn’t call the night before, the first time in weeks. She knew he was up  to his eyeballs in a disaster at his mom’s, but she couldn’t help but be bummed. She checked the phone as she sat up in bed just to make sure she hadn’t missed  anything, but there were still no new messages.